About
The book contains Ecopolitik, an introduction as an epilogue by José Luis Espejo, a letter to the Huaorani people, two research texts and one bertso, descriptive texts and photos of recordings, a possible chronology, a glossary, a compilation of several texts with testimonies, reports and declarations from different people, groups, institutions, and publications in reference to the impact—direct or indirect—of the noise from the oil industry during its various phases of development on the people, the environment and the fauna. More info at dark.mikelrnieto.net

34 recordings in one track. In a black polycarbonate CD.
Final editing, mastering and carbon print from Ireland by Slavek Kwi.

This publication has been possible thanks to the support of the Basque Government as part of its programme of grants for the encouragement and development of plastic and visual arts, in the publications category (2015).

Aurelio Cianciotta | Neural
In the product page on the label’s website the description of this release ends with this warning: “Partially legible. Sunlight reading recommended”. It’s hard to fail recognising that this warning is absolutely appropriate, until you realise that it’s a black book, with black opaque pages, printed with black lucid ink, housing a black CD. And it doesn’t stop there, as it doesn’t have a fixed sale price, but its price is determined by the crude oil Brent price at the time of purchase, so the author and label warn that if you buy the book you’ll “contribute to the destruction of the planet.” With these creepy premises, a curiosity about the content of the work immediately arises. And after a few attempts, the reader can find the right angle and light to (struggle to) start reading realising that it’s a remarkable collection of essays, pictures and documents on the oil industry’s impact on the Ecuadorian natural environment. This is coupled with a CD with 34 recordings in one track from the Ecuadorian rainforest (the whole work is part of the Field Recording Series by Gruenrekorder). It progresses from delightful natural sounds to industrial machines slowly disrupting them. Then reading, meanwhile, some testimonies or a detailed chronology perfectly let this whole suppressed world to (painfully in every sense) re-emerge from its current status. The pervasive “black”, eventually, doesn’t hide anymore, but becomes the mandatory colour to engage with, in order to learn and understand what has been hidden, but must now be revealed.link

Beach Sloth
Mikel R. Nieto’s “Dark Sound” truly has love for its surroundings. Quite soothing in its exploration of the great unknown this is a field recording from the night when all else remains silent. Throughout the piece the attention to detail feels incredible as literally every last possible detail is amplified in full. Edits are done with the utmost of care and consideration as the many variations of the sound feel alive. Layering is done in an intricate way that emphasizes the importance of the smallest elements to celebrate those elements of an aural environment that so often go completely overlooked.

The smallest sounds are given great care. Raindrops find their intrepid way into the mix without overwhelming the rest of the balance. Nature’s sounds waft in and out. Over the course of the piece Mikel R. Nieto moves in and out of the original source materials, letting slight manipulations seep into the mix to create a slight disorientation. By opting for this Mikel R. Nieto lets the sound feel as if it is constantly in a state of flux. Various non-natural elements also rear their heads, reminding the listener of the world beyond this one, of the industrial world that so often interrupts nature. For the finale the way that the piece simply disappears into a regular environment, one familiar to all, gives it a universal relatable spirit to it.

Mikel R. Nieto | Dark Sound @ ACL 2016: The Year’s Best Packaging
A black disc lodged in a black book with black print? This didn’t seem like such a good idea, until we read the text and thought about it for a while. As it turns out, the project is a parabolic reflection of its subject matter, the redacted and silenced voices of the oppressed. This is a perfect example of a label fully committing to a vision, and in this case, amazingly, the risk pays off.

& ACL 2016: Top Ten Field Recording & Soundscape
Dark Sound tells a story that few want to hear, but that all need to hear: a story of a culture obliterated by greed and “progress.” The black book contains black prose and even blacker thoughts, while the field recordings provide a soundtrack to desecration. The sounds of nature continue to vibrate beneath the machines, but they do so with progressively weaker sounds. We strain to hear them as we strain to read their stories, and yet we must. In the words of Martin Niemöller, First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out …. (Richard Allen)

textura
It’s saying something when the book component of Mikel R. Nieto’s Dark Sound is even more unusual than the CD material it accompanies. Dark it most definitely is: with its type printed in black ink on dark paper, the 176-page hardback book verges on unreadable; formally described as “partially legible,” the book requires that the reader either hold it a particular angle under lamplight to absorb it or do the same under bright sunlight. The text itself, presented in Huao (the language spoken by the Huaorani people), Basque, Spanish, and English, is cryptic, too, as indicated by the “By buying this book you are contributing to the destruction of the planet” note within and the political dimension signified by its “The price of this book is set by the crude oil Brent price (LCO)” statement. Dark Sound is rather Borges-ian in its content, ranging as it does between texts (on the ethics of deep listening, for example), reports, aphorisms and quotations (Nietzsche, Artaud), diagrams, testimonies, a letter to the Huaorani people, a glossary, and “a possible chronology,” among other things. By now, it should be obvious that the texts collectively accentuate the profound impact the oil industry can have on living creatures, human and otherwise, and their surroundings.

Given the challenges with which the reader must contend, it’s the CD component that will likely form the primary site of engagement for many consumers; having becoming suitably oriented to the project via the book, they’ll likely shift their attention to the sound collage and perhaps absorb (to the best of their ability) the text while the black polycarbonate CD’s content fills the room. Though Nieto, a phonographer, sound artist, and researcher, fashioned the material from thirty-four separate recordings (captured using devices ranging from contact microphones and hydrophones to bat detectors), it’s presented as a single-track, sixty-five-minute stream.

A dense vocal tapestry of insects, amphibians, underwater creatures, and birds appears amidst thunder and the industrial noise of machines (including a passenger plane, pump, battery, an electric generator at Tiputini Biodiversity Station, and air conditioner for the Electrical Substation at Yasuni Research Station). Though a simple scan of the thirty-four sources reveals a sound design that moves from an initial emphasis on natural phenomena (in the Ecuadorian jungle) to the industrial sphere, a better appreciation for the CD’s material is obtained by reading the detailed notes Nieto wrote for each part. In doing so, the sound material takes on a whole new dimension; it resonates much more powerfully, for instance, when one realizes that a machine’s grinding is actually the sound of jungle terrain being flattened and cleared to make way for the construction of an oil settlement.
Of course the display format used makes absorbing such information a challenge, to say the least, and it’s easy to imagine a less resolute soul abandoning the reading process midway through. As true to the projects’s theme as the black-on-black display is, a subtle modification to it that would have allowed for slightly better readability might have been worth considering, especially when the textual content is so central to an appreciation of the work’s themes.link

Matt Parker | earthkeptwarm.com
I have listened several times to the CD Dark Sound by Mikel R. Nieto over the past month and have been intrigued by the purpose of the recordings presented by the album. — Dark Sound is a CD length single track album of field recordings taken by Mikel R. Nieto mostly in and around the Ecuadorian rainforest within areas associated with the colonisation and domination of contested areas that were found to have oil reserves. The album traces the relationships between a number of different indigenous groups who have resisted becoming associated with Western European and global models of capital, in favour of continuing the heritage and lives they had prior to the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the late 15th Century.

The single track CD contains a wide number of field recordings from across various situations that the recordist encountered whilst investigating the noise and culture of Ecuadorian oil mining operations and the impact it has had on the biophonic soundscape and ecology of non-native human, native human, and nonhuman populations. The album comes with an accompanying black paged book with black glossy lettering throughout which makes it impossible to read other than in bright sunlight; a statement upon the darkest of dark geological substrates; crude oil, as well as a comment on the practices of obfuscation that have continued in pursuit of capital gain through oil drilling by corporations. This has led to a number of significant historical, political events including the death of Alejandro Lebaka, a Basque man who in the 1980s took it upon himself as a missionary to position himself as “the voice of the voiceless” (Lebaka in Nieto, 2016: 53) but in his attempted defence and support for a number of native groups, specifically the Huaorani (literally meaning those who speak our language”) which is to say, the native people of the Ecuadorian rainforests, was killed by spears from a group of Huaorani referred to as Tagaeri who no longer wished to partake in the violent systems of control forced upon the Huaorani.

The book provides a significant overview to the political history and issues encountered as a result of the colonisation, and pacification of the indigenous people of Ecuador in pursuit for oil whilst also raising a broad ranging investigation into acoustic research and/or phenomena that are a consequence of the oil operations and their effect directly and indirectly on the Ecuadorian ecology.

The album itself, contains a number of ethnographical and environmental field recordings that include weather events, insects, birds, fish and small mammals and security guards, diesel turbines and high security perimeter fencing. The recordings range from acoustic captures to hydrophones to ultrasound and contact microphones in an attempt to reflect the wide range of acoustic, para-acoustic infra and ultrasonic phenomena that are comprised, altered and ruptured in the pursuit of capital.

The book is highly politicised and the recordings only further emphasise the massive transitions from small tribe to mass industrial practice and the absolute refusal for some to be forced to be adapted and co-opted into a military industrial complex and capital based system of goods exchange and parasitic raping of newly discovered lands.link

Stephen Fruitman | Avant Music News
“The only political issue that matters is climate change,” according to American writer Michael Tolkin. “Everything else is midrash.” Mikel R. Nieto is a Spanish artist/researcher from Basque country and co-editor of the sound art web portal mediateletipos. With his piece Dark Sound, he attempts to heal the world in a fashion far more oblique than any Talmudic exegesis.

For Dark Sound is a 176-page hardback book containing nearly illegible texts printed in a shade of black just barely this side of pitch, which is the color of the pages, as if it had been dipped in the effluence of the Exxon Valdez. Within are essays and letters in Huao (language of the Huaorani of Ecuador), Basque, Spanish and English. Thus for the average individual the book is unreadable, even if he or she were fluent in one or two of the languages and read the book in strong sunlight, as the author recommends. A shame, really (though probably the point), since it claims to include “Ecopolitik, an introduction as an epilogue” by José Luis Espejo (the one who writes about the secret Hermetic codes of Leonardo da Vinci? Impossible to tell, there´s a million of ´em on Facebook), maps and photos and a bulging archive of research papers, reports, facsimiles and testimonies of the clearly excessive, if not downright genocidal, ravages of the oil industry in Ecuador.

The unreadable word as statement? In the great scheme of things, everything we write is eventually erased. Might as well begin as the universe intends us to finish. Fortunately, there is a black polycarbonate CD affixed to the inside back cover that the disc player has no trouble reading, containing a continuous flow of field recordings made in Huoarani country, contrasting the natural environment and its birdsong, wildlife and weather with the heavy metal clankings and drillings of the oil industry laying waste to the former.

The price of Dark Sound is “set by the crude oil Brent price” on the day of purchase (pretty low on the day of writing, so act fast) and, just to prick your social conscience one last time, Nieto reminds the presumptive consumer that “[b]y buying this book you are contributing to the destruction of the planet”. Well, nobody said saving the world was going to be easy.link

Richard Allen | a closer listen
Here’s a release for the blackest of hearts: a black book with black ink, housing a black disc, titled Dark Sound. In addition, the price of the package is determined by the crude oil Brent price at the time of purchase. The website warns customers that by buying the book, they will be “contributing to the destruction of the planet.” Now that’s bleak. However, it’s also the most honest advertising we can remember.

So is this gothic music? Industrial? No, it’s darker than that. But what could possibly be darker than a demon? one might ask. How about a duck covered with oil, or a child swallowing water from a polluted river? Got you. Yes, this is real horror.

I feel that I must be honest too. The book is a pain to read. It reminds me of the black leopard I once saw at the San Diego Zoo. The creature made no sense to me. I couldn’t see its spots – black on black – until it turned a certain way, until iridescence made the marks visible. The same is true of the book. You’ll need just the right light. But it’s worth reading: a collection of essays, photography (black), poetry, redacted documents, glossaries and reports of the impact the oil industry has had on Ecuadoran environments. Let the disc play; the experience will be concurrent. Swiftly arrives the sound of thunder, foreshadowing intact.

All is peaceful at first, natural, unadorned. But then those other sounds start to creep in: our sounds. An airplane. An extraction machine. Underwater generators. All the while, Nieto is growing close to his natural subjects: ants, bats, birds, fish that leap from the water to escape larger fish. And yet he is apologetically aware that he is changing the environment by his very presence, and by his machines. The barons are less conscience-stricken; as the book’s chronology demonstrates, they are driven by profit, pushing as far as they can in every instance, claiming the justification of demand. While the “uncontacted people” attack workers over the disturbance of noise, their violence generates sympathy. A far more chilling crime is the hotel room robbery of the recording artist, as security does nothing to stop the thief. His property ~ which fortunately did not include his computer – is never recovered.

By the halfway mark, “the sounds of the forest (have been) driven away or smothered by the sound of engines”. Only when the machinery rests does the local tapestry re-emerge. And yet, as one author indicates, the pre-eminent silence is not that of the indigenous people or non-human species, but that of the local indignation. Money buys trials, redactions, law enforcement, turned heads. To read the book is to read something that looks secret because it is hidden. To listen to the composition – 34 recordings blended into a single track – is to realize that noise can be murder.link

Frans de Waard | VITAL WEEKLY
The other release is a hardcover book, 176 pages, so one has to read something during these sixty-four minutes of music that can be found on the pitch black CD. At least if you mastered either Huao, Basque, Spanish or English, and you are willing to sit either in sunlight or a strong lamp: the whole book is black ink on paper, so not easy to read. The whole thing is about the oil industry and how they destroy our planet. The price of the book is „set by the crude oil Brent price (LCO)“, so it fluctuates on a daily basis (check out the label’s website for that). Ah, but making books is also not very ‚green‘, you could remark, but the author beat you there too: „by buying this book you are contributing to the destruction of the planet“, it says on the back. Thankfully I got mine for free; I must not think how it got here anyway, by car or perhaps even by plane but surely an oil using device. Huao, one may wonder, is the language as spoken by the Huaorani people in Ecuador and whose land is under siege by the oil industry, and that what this highly politically motivated book is about, hence the excessive use of the colour black. Their environment is what we hear on the (also black, but maybe not a CDR?) musical component of this package. There are lots of wildlife, rain, and thunder sounds but also the sounds of the oil industry. Of course I should say about the latter they are ‚awful‘ sounds, but it makes up a fascinating listening experience, moving from one sound into the next; the whole piece has thirty-four different segments, but it is cut as one piece on the disc, perhaps to suggest a unity of location. Nieto, who is from a Basque background, in case you were wondering why that language is part of this, created a great imaginative piece of sound art based on totally contrasting field recordings. Meanwhile you can read the book, obviously, but I must admit I found it not easy to read, or even to search for those bits that were in English, as the four languages are together, arranged per chapter/section. Holding this against the light, concentrating really hard to decipher it, made me think: ‚okay, I sympathise with this message, even if I can’t find the concentration to take it all in‘. But this is all together an excellent political statement.link